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Monday, March 23, 2015

Living Church of God: Home of Big Brother

Things continue to slowly melt down at the Living Church of God headquarters in Charlotte. Every time one of these stories comes out here, LCG brass start proclaiming that the LCG is more unified than every and that EVERYONE loves each other with so much love that even God is surprised. It is easy to see why Herbert Armstrong refused to name Rod Meredith as his successor.

Rod Meredith is keenly aware of his beloved
source of money crumbling a little more each day as employees and members alike
get more and more frustrated with his rhetoric. There are indeed "loose
bricks" at LCG headquarters in Charlotte. Its unclear as to whether he
continually writes and preaches about the purest ministry ever and the most
unity in the history of the church in an effort to convince himself or others;
or if he is truly delusional.

Meanwhile there are so many issues and unhappy employees / ministers at LCG
headquarters that Meredith has now begun to check private emails of his
employees looking for dissenters, negative comments about himself or his
soldiers or communication with the ex-communicated. Any emails sent to or
from private @lcg.org email accounts is
scrutinized by someone in IT for offending statements. Nothing is private. If
it goes through their server, it is theirs. Meredith's paranoia is
unfathomable.

Of course people are smart enough to send email that they truly want to be
private via web-based email such as Hotmail or gmail. Roddy probably hasn't
figured that out though since he's stuck in 1957 (when it was widely acceptable
to discriminate against blacks and homosexuals).

It is somewhat amusing to imagine that someone gets paid to monitor Facebook
accounts and private emails over at LCG. Is there nothing better these people
can do with their time?

17 comments:

Some would have us believe that things are different, or things have changed within Armstrongism. But, when all is said and done, a leopard cannot change its spots. The doctrines automatically breed this type of behavior. That's what was wrong with Pharisaic Judaism to begin with, and it still is today.

When people bristle under heavy handed authority, authority responds by becoming even more heavy-handed. In the case of the ACOGs, authority pretends it was just going along minding its own business and doesn't know how people could have somehow fallen into bad attitudes or bitterness without even a hint of provocation.

BB, you wrote: "...But, when all is said and done, a leopard cannot change its spots..."

I hear that phrase about a leopard not changing its spots very often; however, I have learned that a leopard does change its spots. Just watch one. It'll be in one spot for awhile, but give it some time and it will move and change its spots and be located elsewhere.

Your message, despite that comment, is understood and the living group continues to be changing into a "dead" group, but time will tell......

"Its [sic] unclear as to whether he continually writes and preaches about the purest ministry ever and the most unity in the history of the church in an effort to convince himself or others; or if he is truly delusional."

Another possibility is that Rod uses his proclamations of unity as threats toward anyone thinking of dissenting. Agree with Rod or else. I always sensed an undercurrent of threat when HWA insisted that the church was completely unified. Go read his member letters from just before he kicked GTA out for examples.

"Nothing is private. If it goes through their server, it is theirs."

Legally this is true. The courts have ruled that if a company informs its employees that it may read their emails, then the employees have no expectation of privacy. Never write something from a company email account that you don't want your boss to read.

Good luck to the peons in Charlotte who are trying to sort out their lives. I hope they escape from Armstrongism.

The blog post read, "Its unclear as to whether he continually writes and preaches about the purest ministry ever and the most unity in the history of the church in an effort to convince himself or others; or if he is truly delusional."

MY COMMENT - Rod Meredith is well aware that the most unity ever experienced in history of the Church was the WCG at its zenith in 1969 - 1971 timeframe. This was before the failed 1972/1975 prophecy, and before GTA's sex scandals were widely known. It was also a period in which Loma Armstrong's influence in the Church could still be felt although she was recently deceased before that time. Herbert Armstrong didn't yet have is "mid-life" escapades marrying a woman 40+ years his junior.

And, of course, there were no 700+ splinters, all were under one tent in one organization known as The Worldwide Church of God. Attendance at Feast sites were 6,000 to 10,000 per site in the US. So, the period 1969 to 1971 was the period when the Church was most unified.

S, if the idiot Meredith is saying that this is the most unity in Church history, then he indeed is either delusional or quickly going senile.

According to one of the first issues of the Ambassador Report he was the one who started WCG headquarters snooping into who was paying what tithes to WCG.

"In early 1968 Roderick C. Meredith, then head of the U.S. church ministry for the Radio Church of God, now the Worldwide Church of God, was taking a tour of the new computer facilities at 55 North Vernon. I briefed him on the system that we were developing and showed him some printouts of donation information. His eyes seemed to widen as he realized the potentialities of such a system. He asked me to look up the donation records of two men who were about to be ordained as deacons. It turned out that one was tithing and one was not (according to Meredith). Mr. Meredith immediately set up a policy to be administered through Dan Porter, then head of the Church Administration Department, that all ordinations and elevations in rank would be done subsequent to a tithe check."

Some may question the integrity of Keith Hunter's statement and cry "sour grapes" or "that's just his opinion." However, the diamond-hard data of official documentation from the Church Administration Department bearing the signature of Roderick C. Meredith makes clear the painful truth that the WCG endorsed spying on its members' donation records. (As Rod Meredith himself would say about the following statement, "Get the point, fellas!")

What is with all this whining and complaining from spoiled LCG members lately? Is it not wonderful that LCG members have a “big brother” to watch out for them? Are they not in an enviable position to continue to party on in the Living It Up church? Did some people just “not get it”? Do some people just not realise that the whole reason that computers were invented in the first place was probably so that the LCG could keep better track of everything that its members do, especially the financial stuff ( for their own good, of course)? Such blatant ingratitude and grumbling must surely trouble an old fashion geezer like Roderick Meredith who has been diligently trying so hard from the very beginning to be their leader that he practically coveted the position.

Of course, statistically speaking (since actual factual hard numbers are never given except when they would help DCP's argument--and they never seem to), David Pack's RCG will have newer, better, faster, snoopier computers. This way people can be helpfully reminded (and even more helpfully expelled from the RCG) if they have not tithed in a couple months (or have negligently forgotten to send in the cash from the continual fundraising that everyone in the RCG is expected to do, or somehow forgot to send in the money from remortgaging or selling their house, or forgot to turn over the funds after cashing out their retirement savings plan as instructed, etc., etc., etc.--and yes, I really do mean etc.). This modern, efficient computer system can also flag any “bums” who selfishly try to help themselves to third tithe assistance without even being thoughtful enough to consider that DCP might have already earmarked third tithe funds for better things, such as more new buildings, or just paying the regular bills.

Other groups, like Gerald Flurry's PCG appear to be much more primitive by comparison. While they do similar things, their computers are probably slightly older. Much of the data gathering and record keeping in the PCG seems to be done by the age old system of old men, and even older women, constantly watching, snooping, scheming, plotting, gossiping, lying and slandering virtually 24/7/365 nonstop. The problem with this old PCG system is that numerous errors, inaccuracies, falsehoods and malicious lies get deliberately spread everywhere. The PCG really needs to find a better, less dishonest, less unjust way of doing the things it does. Or, maybe the PCG should just stop doing all the evil things that it does. As a start, the PCG could learn from RCM and get the facts by snooping at actual e-mails rather than getting its misinformation from unreliable and wicked old men and women whose many shameful lusts always cause their reports to be distorted.

Meredith: You certainly don't, pal. 'Cause the good news is you're fired. The bad news is you've got, all of you've got, just one week to regain your jobs, starting with tonight. Oh, have I got your attention now? Good. 'Cause we're adding a little something to this month's tithing contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is——you're fired. Do you get the picture? Are you laughing now? Mr. Armstrong paid good money to go on the air. You got leads. You can't tithe the leads you're given? You can't tithe shit, you are shit, hit the bricks, pal!

Minister #1: The prospects are poor.

Meredith: The prospects are poor. Fuckin' prospects are poor? You're poor. I've been in this business 20 years. Only one thing counts in this Christian life! Get them to sign on the line, which is a tithe check! You hear me, you fuckin' faggots? [Meredith flips over a blackboard which has two sets of letters on it: ABT, and AIDA.] A-B-T. A-Always, B-Be, T-Tithing. Always be tithing! Always be tithing! A-I-D-A. Attention, Interest, Decision, Action. Attention -- do I have your attention? Interest -- are you interested? I know you are 'cause it's fuck or walk. You tithe them, or you hit the bricks! Decision -- have you made your decision for Christ?!! And action. A-I-D-A. Get out there!! You got the prospects coming in. You think they came in to get outta the rain? A guy don't walk on the lot lest he wants to tithe. Sitting out there waiting to give you their tithe money! Are you gonna take it? Are you man enough to take it?

Minister #2: You're such a hero, you're so rich. How come you're coming down here wasting your time with such a bunch of bums?

Meredith: You see this watch? [Meredith takes off his gold watch.] You see this watch?

Minister #2: Yeah.

Meredith: That watch cost more than your car. I made $270,000 last year. How much you make? You see, pal, that's who I am. And you're nothing. Nice guy? I don't give a shit. Good father? Fuck you, go home and play with your kids!! [to everyone] You wanna work here? Tithe!!! I can go out there tonight, the leads you got, make myself $15,000! Tonight! In two hours! Can you? Go ye therefore into all the world and do likewise! The tithes are out there, you pick it up, it's yours. You wanna go out on those visits and tithe, tithe, tithe, it's yours. If not, you're gonna be shining my shoes. And you know what you'll be saying, bunch of losers, sitting around in a bar. [in a mocking weak voice] "Oh yeah, I used to be a minister, it's a tough racket." [He takes out large stack of red index cards tied together with string from his briefcase.] These are the new leads. These are the Reader’s Digest leads. And to you, they're gold. And you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for tithers. [to Minister #3 as he puts on his watch again] And to answer your question, pal, why am I here? I came here because Mr. Armstrong asked me to. He asked for a favor. I said, the real favor, follow my advice and fire your fuckin' ass.

Ah, the nuances! I am sure that most of us understand whan a victim of Armstrongism cries out, using strong language to express his or her angst and pain.

It is something altogether different, a freakout maneuver, to quote or paraphrase a movie script filled with excessive, or gratuitous swearing just because you can, knowing that it is guaranteed to offend.

I make this remark because of the timing. We're probably going to get some new visitors who are beginning to ask all the right questions about LCG. The minute they see this aberration, this departure from our normal conversations, this Glen Garry Glen Ross material, some will fear that this is what happens to peoples' minds if they leave an ACOG, and it's going to scare them right back into LCG. Not good.

I just want you to know that you have the administration here in Charlotte in an uproar. There are some really pissed off people here upset that their shenanigans are being exposed. Keep up the good work! An LCG member.